AV Bible Believers Fellowship

I was not brought up in any church. My parents did not go to church so they did not take me to church. I use to go to church with friends while growing up from time to time. But do not recall ever hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That all changed in 1996. A friend asked us to go to church with them. It was an Independent Baptist Church. We went for the first time on a Wednesday night. the very next evening the Pastor of the church showed up at our door and started witnessing to us. Seems he and his wife came over every Thursday night for several weeks telling us about Jesus.

Well on Sunday March 24 1996 we went to our friends after church. We talked about Jesus alot that day. My first wife and I had asked alot of questions to our friends and they thought it would be best to call the pastor. So he came over a witnessed to us again and at around 5 pm my first wife and I got on our knees and asked Jesus to save us. I followed in believers baptism the following Sunday evening. My first wifes mom talked he out of being baptized said she had all ready been baptized as an infant in the Methodist church.

About 6 weeks later my wife and I disagreed with something the pastor said and stopped going to his church and had all intentions of finding a new church. We were young and foolish in our Christian lives. We didn't start attending another church and backslide into our old sins.

She passed away in 2001 and I remarried in 2003 to a saved lady and we started going to our current church a month or so before we got married. We are serving the Lord and growing in our Christian lives.

I have regrets of my backsliding and I think the devil uses it to make me sometimes question my salvation.

Thank you for that testimony, brother. It points out something that's already become clear in this section: the wonderful variety of ways that God gets us saved. I wasn't saved in church, or as a result of attending church; a teenaged girl led me to Christ. Here Am I came to Christ alone, after a long period of being witnessed to on the Internet. In your case, it was the preaching of the word in a church.

I'm very sorry about your first wife. I, too, have been married twice; after years of faithful service, my second wife turned away from the Lord, and from me, and simply ... left. We have no idea what causes people to react the way they do, but the pain lasts a long time....

Brother, if you had never backslidden, you might have become self-righteous, and started leaning to your own understanding, and pride might have become a besetting sin. But Romans 8:28 applies here, too. Either that verse is true, or it's a lie.

I thank you again. We're all very imperfect, but we are slowly, steadily being conformed to the Image of Christ. The Enemy might cause you to doubt your salvation, but he certainly can't take it away from you!

Thank you William...

I forgot to mention. I was 27 when I got saved. I had never heard the gospel before I was 27. It didn't take long to convince me I was a sinner on my way to Hell and needed Jesus.

(10-17-2009 11:47 PM)chriskjv Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you William...

I forgot to mention. I was 27 when I got saved. I had never heard the gospel before I was 27. It didn't take long to convince me I was a sinner on my way to Hell and needed Jesus.

I was 19, Here Am I was 40, and you were 27. All of my children were, I think, saved before the age of eight. And Here Am I's father was saved, and publicly baptized, around the age of 70! God is truly gracious, and truly longsuffering!

My oldest was saved at 11.. I bet the three year old gets saved before she's 8.. She likes to sing the Nothing But The Blood of Jesus...

(10-17-2009 11:47 PM)chriskjv Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you William...

I forgot to mention. I was 27 when I got saved. I had never heard the gospel before I was 27. It didn't take long to convince me I was a sinner on my way to Hell and needed Jesus.

I was 29 when Christ saved me, Chris. I'd read tracts, but I'd not heard the gospel preached before that either.

(10-17-2009 11:47 PM)chriskjv Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you William...

I forgot to mention. I was 27 when I got saved. I had never heard the gospel before I was 27. It didn't take long to convince me I was a sinner on my way to Hell and needed Jesus.

Thank you for sharing that, Chris. I love reading testimonies, seeing how the Lord reaches each and every one of His children, no two testimonies the same.

As I finished reading your original post, I was thankful to think that your first wife did get saved before it was too late.

William Wrote:I was 19, Here Am I was 40, and you were 27. All of my children were, I think, saved before the age of eight. And Here Am I's father was saved, and publicly baptized, around the age of 70! God is truly gracious, and truly longsuffering!

Actually, it was even better than that: my dad was saved just a couple weeks' shy of his 79th birthday! Woo!

God is so good, so full of grace and mercy for us.

Thank you so much for sharing your testimony, brother Chris! I give thanks to God Almighty that your first wife was saved before she passed! AMEN!

I see that many of us here got saved at a variety of ages (I was twenty-one). Anyway, brother I think we all had backslide here and there in our Christian walk, and the devil likes to use that to make us doubt our salvation.

Praise the Lord God Almighty, that our salvation is NOT depended upon our performance as Christians, or our feelings! Praise the Lord God Almighty, that our salvation is only depended on the precious blood shed by His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ! AMEN!

In Jesus' Precious Name,

Rolando
:smile::smile::smile:

Indeed.. The Devil tries to tell us things that is not true. He tries to get us to doubt..

Indeed. I'm glad my first wife was saved. My son will see his mother again someday. He was 5 when she passed. He doesn't remember her.

We were back sliden at the time of her death and not in church. Her mothers Methodist pastor at the time did the funeral and the gospel was not presented.